


Raise

by shrift



Series: Sports Night Fanworks [17]
Category: Sports Night
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 21:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrift/pseuds/shrift
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dana is excellent at mentoring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Raise

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Laura Shapiro, who requested: Sports Night, Dana and Natalie, dim sum.

"Natalie!" Dana called out as she came out of the subway and saw Natalie standing near a food cart.

"Hey!" Natalie said, and went up on her toes for a hug. "Come on, the restaurant's this way."

Dana followed her across the street. "Hey, so what kind of food does this restaurant serve, anyway?"

"Dim sum. My friend Janet swears by it," Natalie said.

"Janet? Do I know Janet? Is this going to be like that Asian Fusion fiasco that we went to on recommendation from your friend Paul? The one that gave half our crew the runs, and was closed down the next day for health code violations?"

Dana vividly remembered that day, both the food poisoning and Jeremy's lecture on cultural appropriation. Natalie wisely never mentioned Paul again.

Natalie raised her eyebrow. "You lost the right to complain about that at our last poker game."

"When I threw that in the pot to raise you, I thought I had that hand in the bag. How was I supposed to know that you had a straight flush?" Dana asked.

"I can bluff," Natalie protested. "I totally can bluff. I can bluff like nobody's business."

Dana patted her shoulder. "You're terrible at poker. It's a universal constant."

Once they got to the restaurant and were seated, Dana settled her elbows on the table and gave Natalie a significant look.

"What?" Natalie asked.

"So?" Dana prompted. "The new job! How's it going?"

Dana hired Natalie knowing that she was going to lose her someday, because when you nabbed the most talented people, they inevitably moved on to bigger and better things. She was wildly happy for Natalie, but Dana also missed her and didn't particularly want to break in a new associate producer.

"I'm producing my own show," Natalie said with a grin. Then she leaned over the table to grab Dana's hands, and the grin turned wrong. "I'm producing my own show, and I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Natalie, I promise you that you do know what you're doing," Dana said.

"I have to make all the decisions! Nobody told me that," Natalie said.

Dana nodded. "Decision fatigue is a thing. You'll figure it out."

"Promise?" Natalie asked, eyes wide.

"I'm going to send you so many tips that your inbox will start sorting me into your spam filter," Dana promised. "Now where's the waiter? I need to order an inadvisable amount of steamed buns and dumplings."

"Can we also order an inadvisable amount of deep-fried rolls?" Natalie asked.

"Absolutely," Dana said. "So who's your Natalie?"

"I'm still interviewing candidates."

Dana waved her hand, "Dish! I want all the gory details."

Natalie looked around surreptitiously, and then said, "One guy actually applied with pimpdaddy69 as his email address."

"Here's a tip -- the first of many -- don't hire that guy," Dana said.

"Wow, that's such an invaluable insight. Thank you, Dana."

"I'm here to help and eat steamed pork siu mai," Dana said. "And my siu mai hasn't arrived yet."


End file.
